New Zealand is reimagining what tourism can look like. The COVID-19 pandemic has provided a unique opportunity to not only build back tourism in New Zealand – but to ‘build back better’.
5. Tourism Funding: the right resources driving the right outcomes
6. Value Add: the ‘halo’ effect and driving productivity, innovation
7. Measure What Matters: Quality over Quantity
8. For New Zealand: industry Structures that represent all stakeholders
5. Tourism Funding
Successful, sustainable tourism industries understand the full costs and benefits of tourism and have efficient ways to generate revenue to pay for its marketing and management. New Zealand has a highly centralized revenue system which is neither responsive to the growth of tourism nor the needs of local communities. Prior to the COVID-19, Auckland implemented a controversial hotel rate and Queenstown pushed forward with a bed tax without a coherent national strategy on how to raise and share revenue from visitors. New Zealand urgently needs a fresh approach starting with a review of international best practices on tourism funding mechanisms. There are decades of experience from hundreds of destinations on the pros and cons of different funding approaches including bed taxes, visitor levies, tourism improvement districts, tax increment financing and more.